Re: virus: Faith and Reason

William Roh (bill_roh@coneco.com)
Wed, 12 Nov 1997 11:59:44 -0800


Marie Said:
> What we must change is to get people to have faith in themselves and to
> find in themselves everything that is needed to find peace and happiness.
> It is our belief that we must look outside for things (both material and
> spiritual) to sustain us that is the false belief.
> As a theist I think that as a child of God I have a connection through Him
> to everyone else. As a Buddhist I know that I need no priest to accomplish
> my own enlightenment.
>
> If the atheists can find the same connection, then we are on the same wave
> length even if we have the opposite belief.

As an Atheist, i am an animal that has, over billions of years evolved
to dominate this insignificant and inconsequential planet through
violence and my evolved method of reasoning (relative to other earthly
creature. I find happiness in whatever triggers the release of
neurochemicals that are interpreted by my consciousness as "happy". For
me this is music, literatire, sex, history, religion, self-honesty, and
altering perception (i am sure there are many others). in the future, i
would be happy if everyone in the world was also free to be happy, and
so in my part time, i attempt to affect changes in those around me that
might help bring this this concept into reality. I believe that for any
"happy' state to last, self-deception cannot exist as a major portion of
the psyche. I feel that faith, as in faith in god or faith in self, is
inherently detrimental because it is a type of self-deception. i also
see no reason to suspect that other than through communication, mutual
feelings, and coming for earth, that we are in any way connected by
"spirit". I consider the supposed connection to be "faith" alone, and so
far unsupportable by evidence. i will admit that there are many things
the mind is capable of that we do not yet understand, and am open to new
findings. A good example of this is the empirical evidence gathered from
human - random number generator experiments. When a human concentrates
on changing this process, over thousands of attempts, there is an slight
but unexplained shift in the generator. I do not pretend to know why,
but this is a good example of physical evidence to support the mind
being more powerful than suspected.

I do not know if this will map to your concept other than we both agree
that we want others to find happiness.

Sodom